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Somos OC | Mpowerment Orange County CA

Monday, June 13, 2016

The Mpowerment staff at UCSF are
heartbroken and outraged by the massacre in Orlando at the Pulse.

Our thoughts are with the victims families, friends and the Orlando LGBT community. We are grieving with you.

Mpowerment Projects have always worked
closely with gay bars in communities, and bars have been some of our strongest allies
in HIV prevention efforts with young adult gay men.

LGBT bars have been one of the few
gatherings places we historically thought of as safe. This violent act was not
only an attack on the people who were there; it was an attack on the all the
places we consider a refuge.

LGBT bars have been the cornerstone of the
modern gay rights movement going back to the Stonewall Riots. The ramifications
of this attack are larger than that one act of horrific violence and hatred. A
natural, knee-jerk reaction might be to consider avoiding bars, community
events, and other LGBT-friendly venues, but we can’t let the terrorists win.
When they want to tear us down, we must re-double our efforts to build up our
community.

Our team will continue to patronize our
local businesses and to become even more active in the LGBT community. That is our
path forward to healing.We urge
everyone to do the same.

All of us are working together to strengthen
the health of young gay men’s communities and reduce social isolation. With
renewed energy we support the critical work of agencies and their Mpowerment
Projects to create healthy, peaceful, and caring communities of young adult gay
and bisexual men.